Citizens Energy Group proclaims a vision to “… fulfill the promise of the Trust to serve our customers and communities with unparalleled excellence and integrity” and a mission to “… maintain the lowest possible rates with sound financial management.” Yet still they remain neutral on Leucadia National Corp.’s Rockport coal gasification plant.
Despite evidence that change is necessary, some businesses, not-for-profits and associations cannot do it. An example is service clubs. The Indianapolis Jaycees, having had more than 400 members in 1976, appears to have canceled its telephone number. Zionsville Kiwanis ceased business in September.
I am a capitalist. I believe in free markets, in what the economists describe as “transactions entered into freely between buyers and sellers both of whom have the necessary relevant information.” I also recognize that markets cannot function without “umpires” empowered to enforce rules of fair play and protect that level playing field to which we all pay lip service. The most significant challenge to genuine capitalism, I submit, lies in the ability of some competitors to bribe or otherwise influence the umpires.
Put another year in the history books. It’s time for reflection and a look ahead to the new year. I went back and looked at my column written this time last year—“From politics to hoops, my 2012 wish list”—and I would say the results were mostly positive, with one big exception.
Incoming Indiana Gov. Mike Pence may have spent a decade as a U.S. representative. But he is a neophyte when it comes to managing the state budget—unlike legislative warhorses such as Speaker of the House Brian Bosma and Sens. David Long and Luke Kenley.
Every day, U.S. investors are bombarded with a lack of action from inept politicians who can’t seem to take one positive step toward solving our fiscal crisis.
No matter your politics, you must admit that Mitch Daniels has been the most consequential Hoosier governor in more than a lifetime.
I’ve been a regular visitor to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and, when I was describing what troubled me most about the place to a wise foreign policy friend, he urged me to read the play “Three Sisters” by Chekhov.
Having survived the Supreme Court and the November elections, President Obama’s health care law now faces an even bigger hurdle: the reality of making it work.
Fifty years ago, the Marion County delegation to the Indiana House consisted of 12 men. Among them were Charles Bosma, Brian Bosma’s father; Jim Clark, Murray Clark’s father; and me.
I was out of town Dec. 14, when the Newtown, Conn., massacre took place and could only connect to my loved ones by phone. My fiancé wept uncontrollably: “I can’t imagine what it would be like to drop Mackie off at school, and never see him again,” she said, referring to our 2-year-old son.
Must every tragic mass shooting bring out the shrill ignorance of “gun control” advocates?
Walk any street in Jerusalem or other Israeli city and you will immediately note the presence of lots of school-age kids. They’re dressed for school, often holding hands as they wind their way through busy streets to various field-trip-type excursions.
"Is there any chance we can be there when you get the call?” I asked Dan Quayle on the morning he was chosen to be George Bush’s running mate.
Mitch Daniels has been the best thing to happen to the Hoosier state since Bobby Knight.
The Rockefeller Foundation has called for ideas that address the nation’s youth unemployment situation. Here are mine:
Liberals, at least those aligned with the Indiana teachers’ union, have been creatively interpreting the victory of Glenda Ritz as a rejection of innovative education and a call to return to the old systems of exclusive trust in the educational establishment.
The rise of any politician seems to cause speculation about their future. Such has certainly been the case of Gov.-elect Mike Pence, even though his rise has been relatively slow.
As I recall the story, the guys in my dad’s fraternity used to haze the pledges by cracking eggs, emptying them down the stairwell and making the new guys catch them in their mouths down at the bottom.
I moved to Indianapolis in the summer of 2005. Since then, I have learned to count on three things to occur each summer—a substantial number of die-hard Indianapolis Colts fans will still suffer from acute post-season withdrawal; mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds will nip at my ankles during my evening walk; and a massive, five-month road construction project (or two) will spring up somewhere on Interstate 465.
